A gift of thanks for the kindness of the King.
Leviticus 2:8-9 "No matter how a grain offering for the LORD has been
prepared, bring it to the priest, who will present it at the altar.
9 The priest will take a
representative portion of the grain offering and burn it on the altar. It is
a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
God's people must receive forgiveness before he will accept anything else from us, the Israelites learned that they cannot give any other offering to God before they have their sins forgiven. But after their relationship was restored through the burnt offering it is only proper to honor God by showing their gratitude. ( 2 Corinthians 5:18-21)
The grain offering was an important part of worship that reminded them that
everything they had came from God. God knows the heart of man will turn away
from him if we just keep taking from him without acknowledging him by giving
back a portion.
God's people prepared this offering at home before they took it to the priest. The priest would burn a portion
on the altar and the rest was used by the priest for his food because he was not allotted any land to produce his own food.
Three kinds of grain offerings are listed:
- Choice flour with oil and frankincense,
- Baked cakes or wafers of choice flour and oil, and
- Roasted kernels of grain with oil and frankincense.
God's people are not in the Promised Land yet, they aren't harvesting
anything, if they had any grain for this offering it would have to
be what they brought from Egypt. But we already know that they didn't
have grain to make flour to feed themselves because God was giving them manna, their daily
bread from Heaven to sustain them.
We can't be sure how this offering worked out before they took the
Promised Land and started growing their own food but their future has a
promise of abundant crops. So abundant that they were warned over and
over before they even arrived that they would be ungrateful and turn
away from God.
They were going to be blessed in their new homeland so that they could
be a blessing and point people to the source of their blessings but we know they failed to do this even though they were warned ahead of time. (Deuteronomy 8:7-11)
Sacrificial giving is a great challenge for most of us. In our self centered culture it is difficult to think of giving away something that you feel like you deserve because of your work to produce it. The attitude of the carnal man is, I'm all that matters in the world (narcissism), others don't matter (individualism) and neither does God (secularism). (From the post "The Solution to Self-Centeredness")
Just like God's people in the Promised Land we also struggle to acknowledge him when we have so much abundance. Most of us have back-up plans and safety nets, margins and contingency plans that keep us from being reliant on anybody, not even God.
It is difficult to give so much that it makes you rely on God daily for your needs. We see little need to pray for today's bread when we have enough in the cupboards to sustain us for weeks.
Consider sacrificial giving in scripture:
- The first fruit offering which was given before the barns were full. (Proverbs 3:9-10)
- The Gentile widow that fed Elijah with her meager resources. (1 Kings 17:8-16)
- The poor widow that gave her last two coins. (Mark. 12:42)
- The offering that the Macedonian church gave out of poverty. (2 Corinthians 8:1-2)
- Paul's instructions to the church in Corinth. (2 Corinthians 9:10-11)
I have never seen giving done to the extreme that it is in the Bible. The examples given in scripture show kindness toward others that exceeds any kindness that most people would ever consider even to their best friend. Our gifts to God are not really very sacrificial.
We struggle with, or just ignore the fact, that we are to desire what's best for others even though we have been given the ultimate example of what that looks like. We treat others with the same attitude as the world has, we interpret situations and respond no different than the world, we view our stuff the same as the world.
If Jesus gave away his right to be individualistic and self centered what right do we have to contradict his attitude in our own lives? (Philippians 2:5-8)
Seeing Jesus in the details of the grain offering:
- The oil (Lev. 2:1–2, 4, 6, 15), either poured on it or mingled with it, a picture of the Holy Spirit of God, who was given to Christ without measure (John 3:34).
- The salt (Lev. 2:13; Matt. 5:13), which speaks of our Lord’s purity of character.
- Jesus compared himself to a grain of wheat (John 12:23–25), and He was crushed (“fine flour’’) and put through the furnace of suffering that He might save us from our sins.
- Jesus told us that he is the bread of life (John 6:32)
- Leaven is to be excluded from the offering. This speaks of the fact that there is no evil in Christ. There is no sin in the life of Christ.
- Honey was also excluded. It represents natural sweetness. It will sour, just as leaven is a souring thing.
- Frankincense was a pleasing aroma to God
The greatest way to honor the King for what he has done for me is to give him a portion of his provision for me back to him. I need to be grateful to God for his blessings and realize that I have been blessed so I must be a blessing or I am being disobedient.
Before the grain was used personally for groceries, a portion of it was first prepared and taken to the temple to be offered to God first and then to others (the priest). This attitude should still be in us today!
RELATED ARTICLES
The Grain Offering
(meetinggodinthemargin.com)
What is a grain offering? (gotquestions.org)
